Thursday, December 1, 2022
- Reflection by Michael Schulte
Christian hope requires the embrace of hopelessness.
Our hope is not rooted in positive thinking or an idealized form of reality. Our hope is rooted in death. It is rooted in the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus’s crucified body reminds us that death and violence and greed are realities of this world. Jesus’s death reminds us that sin transcends our individual flesh, that sin is structural, an invisible force which defines our lives on this earth. This force catalyzes premature death and everyday suffering. This force is so powerful that even Jesus’s humanity could not escape its grasp.
Death persists. Tragedy persists. Suffering persists.
But so does God.
God not only persists; God claims ultimate victory over death and all the evil forces of this world through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This ultimate victory is envisioned in Revelation 7:13-17. The author writes:
Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” I said to him, “Sir, you are the one who knows.” Then he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
For this reason they are before the throne of God
and worship him day and night within his temple,
and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.
They will hunger no more and thirst no more;
the sun will not strike them,
nor any scorching heat,
for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Christian hope acknowledges suffering. It knows that each of us is going through “the great ordeal.” The great ordeal of living in a world that can never love us like we deserve to be loved. The great ordeal of living in a world where humans distort the justice of God for their own purposes. The great ordeal of living a finite life filled with sickness and physical death.
And yet, Christian hope dares to believe that our story will not end in suffering and death. No, our story, like Christ’s story, will end in resurrection and new life.
We dare to believe that the world is about to turn–that Christ will come again to reign in justice and power over all the earth. We dare to believe that Jesus Christ, that “Lamb at the center of the throne,” will prevail in restoring this world, so that all may know that they are beloved children of God who are worthy of love and mercy and grace.
May it be so. May Christ come again.